Thursday Hillary Bash - Lobbyist = Superdelegate

This is how business gets done in Washington D.C. or at least in the Democratic party. Lobbyists get to not only influence in Congress, they get to help decide who gets to run for president.

Lobbyists are not only staffing and financing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, they’re also tipping the nomination process in her favor by serving as so-called superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic primary by more than 22 percentage points and by doing so, earned 15 delegates to Clinton’s 9. So it came as a shock to many observers when Clinton, despite losing the second biggest rout in state history, walked away with the same number of delegates.

That’s because Clinton had the support of six New Hampshire unpledged delegates — better known as superdelegates... An Associated Press survey found that superdelegates nationally overwhelmingly supported Clinton.

...Although they make up only a small proportion of the superdelegates, the presence of lobbyists in such a potentially decisive role adds fuel to the critique that the Democratic Party is influenced by monied special interests. In recent months, the DNC quietly repealed rules instituted by Barack Obama that banned lobbyists from donating to the party.

Asked about the role of lobbyists as superdelegates, DNC spokesperson Deshundra Jefferson referred us to a blog post on Medium by Patrice Taylor, the director of party affairs and delegate selection. The post does not explain why professional influence peddlers were designated as superdelegates.

The article actually provided specific examples.  Corruption. Elitism. The Democrat party is truly disgusting if this is the state of affairs.

Obama's lobby love

The latest from the RNC, emphasizing president Obama's lobbyist duplicity.

Obama's lobbyist flip flop

I just posted on Mitt Romney flip flopping on climate change, and I don't want to contribute too much to the idea of the GOP eating their own - not when president Obama does his own flip flopping and is deserving of far more criticism.

The president's purity on lobbyists falls far short of his political rhetoric and what's worse, it appears that the White House is deliberately trying to skirt the president's promises.

Shocking, or just par for the course?

Thanks Again Obama - Elite Lobbying Firms Had A Banner 2009

It's hard to believe that President Obama could have a worse political week than last week, but I'm willing to do my part to help out pointing out more hypocrisy and phony or blown promises. Maybe this meme can catch fire...

Remember this? Pay particular attention to the content between 2:53 to 4:30.

Well, not so much. The critical analysis of this speech could go on for days. The number of broken promises number...more than one.  I didn't count.  But in order to stay focused on lob bying, I'll leave the rest alone for now.  Did the President keep his word on lobbyists?  It's hard to say for sure - there's been some missing transparency that hinders a proper assessment.  But clearly, it was a good year for lobbyists in 2009.  That doesn't make it seem like there has been a crackdown on lobbyists since that speech.  Roll Call has the story:

K Street’s top 25 firms cashed in on the aggressive legislative agenda unleashed by the new president and bigger Democratic majorities in Congress in 2009 to post double-digit growth of about 10 percent over the previous year.

Despite economic uncertainty and the promise by the Obama administration to clamp down on the influence industry, the majority of top lobbying firms posted higher numbers in 2009, with 11 firms showing dramatic growth.

Thanks for another broken promise Mr. President. Maybe you could put the lobbyists on C-SPAN too. Wait, what?